Container for volatile substances



Nov. v27, 1.962

J. lSAMANN CONTAINER FOR voLATILE suBsTANcEs Filed Jan. 8, 1959 UnitedStates Patent Otice 3,065,915 Patented Nov. 27, 1962 3,065,915 CONTAINERFOR VOLATILE SUBSTAN CES `Iulius Samann, Alpenstrasse 11, Zug,VSwitzerland Filed Jan. 8, 1959, Ser. No. 785,724 y1 Claim. (Cl. 239-35)This invention relates to improvements in envelopes or pouches `forporous members impregnated with volatile substances by means of whichthe volatilization of such substances can be retarded or controlled.

Certain substances, such as odor-destroying, air-perfuming, orinsect-destroying substances, are generally quite volatile and porousmembers impregnated with the same have heretofore been enclosed inimpervious envelopes 'or pouches 'from which such members may bepartially Withdrawn to avoid excessive volatilization, as shown in `myPatent No. 2,757,957 of August 7, 1956. In such articles the extent towhich the impregnated members should be `withdrawn from 'the pouches wasnot indicated, and frequently purchasers of these articles did notrealize that 'the rate of volatilization could be controlled bywithdrawing the impregnated member only partially yfrom the pouch, andsuch purchasers frequently removed the porous members entirely from th-epouches with the result that 4the volatilization was too rapid andproduced an excessively heavy and consequently unpleasant odor.

It is therefore one of the objects of this invention to provide anenvelope or package for porous, impregnated members of this kind whichmay be opened at one end to permit withdrawal of said porous member, andwhich is provided with graduations on the package or lenvelopepositioned to cooperate with an indicator on the porous member so thatthe user of the device may readily see toY what extent the member shouldbe withdrawn from the pouch.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a face view of a container or pouch embodying this inventionand having contained therein a porous member impregnated with a volatilesubstance;

PIG. 2 is a similar view thereof showing the porous member partlyremoved from the container;

FIG. 3 .is` a sectional elevation thereof on line 3 3, FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional plan view of a pouch or container of modifiedconstruction;

FIG. 5 is a sectional elevation similar to FIG. 3 but showing a pouch ofanother modified construction.

The envelope or pouch 5 may be of any suitable impervious material inwhich a porous member or device 6' may be contained. This porous memberwhich may, for example, be made of absorbent material such as employedin Ablotting or filter paper, and contains or is impregnated with avolatile substance, and when the pouch containing the member is sealed,none or very little of the volatile material will escape from the pouch.The pouch is formed to be opened at one side, for example, in the upperside or end 7 in the construction illustrated, and the porous member ispreferably provided with a string or cord 8 by means of which it may besuspended. This member may be partly withdrawn so that the upper portionthereof projects through the top of the container or pouch to anydesired extent. The pouch may initially be opened at its upper end onlyto a slight extent so that only a small portion of the porous memberextends out of the pouch. In such cases the volatilization of thesubstances with which the member is impregnated will take place slowly,mainly from the portion of the member which extends beyond the open endof the pouch.

The front panel or face of the pouch may be provided with printing oneither the inner or outer face thereof, or rendered at least partlyopaque, but is provided with a clear, transparent portion or window 10through which a part of the porous and impregnated member 6 is visible,and in order to guide the user to the extent to which the member 6should be removed from the pouch, graduations are provided on the frontface of the pouch adjacent to the window 10. These graduations, forexample, may represent intervals Vof time during which differentportions of the member may be exposed to the atmosphere. For example,for the first week a small part of the upper portion ofthe member can-be withdrawn from the pouch, and then for the second week the member isfurther with drawn, the graduations in that case being spaced apart toindicate weeks.

Cooperating with these graduations is an indicator on the porous member6. This indicator may be of any desired type, such for 'example as aWord of the printed matter on the porous member, a part of this memberor an arrow 12 shown by way of example in FIG. 1, on the lower portionof the member, in position to be clearly seen through the window 10.When the indicator or arrow 12 is opposite the first graduation marked1st week, the upper end of the porous member will extend onlyV to aslight extent beyond the upper end of the pouch. These gr'aduations arespaced apart in such a manner' as to produce a substantially uniformamount of volatilization of the material with which th-e porous member1s impregnated. For example, during the initial position of the member,only a small portion of the upper end of the same is exposed to theatmosphere. As the porous member 6 gradually loses its strength,relatively larger parts of this member may be exposed to the atmosphereby moving the porous member so that the indicator 12 1s opposite thegraduation marked 2nd week.

In the particular construction illustrated, the porous member is in theform of a tree and this generally conical shape `serves two purposes. Inthe first place, when the volatile material is of the maximum strength,only a small part of the apex of the tree or conical member is exposedand gradually larger areas of the tree are exposed to the atmospherewhile smaller portions of the volatile material are left in the pouch.Another purpose of the conical shape is that as the opening in the upperend 7 of the pouch is gradually increased in size, the conical shapelimits the extent to which the member may be drawn out of the pouch andholds the pouch in place on the porous member. When the strength of thevolatile material has greatly diminished, the pouch can be entirelyremoved from the porous member which may then be used without the pouchuntil it has lost its effectiveness.

The usual printed matter on the pouch may be on the inner surface of thefront panel of the pouch, as shown at 14 in FIG. 3, or it may be on theexterior surface of the pouch. The printed matter Preferably covers alarge enough area of the iront panel so that the clear space or window10, which is free of printing, will be conspicuous and readily noticedby contrast.

In the event that the pouch is printed on the inner face and thevolatile substance in the pouch has a detrimental effect on the printingon the inner face of the pouch or on a card, such diiculty can beovercome by providing a pouch or envelope with a double front wall asshown in FIG. 4. In this case the inner pouch 22 is transparent andwould serve only to confine the volatile material, and the printedmatter would be on the double front Wall 26 having a Window 24 throughwhich the porous member 20 and the indicator thereon would be visible.In using this construction the porous member 20 would be withdrawn tothe extent indicated by the graduations on the outer wall of thedouble-walled pouch. In this construction the transparent -ilm extendsalso 3 around the back face of the pouch and is overlapped to form aheat or adhesive seal.

In FIG. 5 I have shown a slightly modified form of my invention in whicha pouch 30 is made entirely of transparent material and a layer or card31 of paper or other material is arranged at the front face of thepouch, this layer or card being provided with a window and having thegraduations printed thereon adjacent to the window, so that they couldbe seen through a transparent part of the pouch. This card is preferablyof a size approximately equal to the interior of the pouch so that whenthe scaled portions of the upper end of the pouch are opened, theremaining unopened portions will keep the card within the pouch whilethe porous member is withdrawn. A card or paper of this kind may be usedin place of printing in the construction shown in FIG. 4, by insertingthe card between the inner and outer front panels of the double walledpouch.

The operation of the article shown in FIGS, 4 and 5 is of courseidentical with that shown in FIGS. l-33. If the volatile substance is ofa nature which would discolor or stain the card by contact, the backface of the card adjacent to the porous member can be covered with alayer of metal foil or the like 33, thus making it possible to insertthe paper or card with printed matter thereon into the same pouch orcontainer with the porous member.

By means of the construction described, the porous device and pouch canbe readily adjusted relatively to each other so that a substantiallyuniform amount of volatilization of the material with which the porousmember is impregnated will take place, thus making it possible toimpregnate the porous member with a relatively large quantity ofvolatile material so that the article can remain effective fordeodorizing and perfurning a room or other enclosure for a much longerperiod of time than would be the case if the porous member wereimpregnated with a smaller quantity of the volatile substance. If theextent of withdrawal of the porous device from the pouch were leftentirely to the judgment of the user, he might waste much of thevolatile substance by excessive withdrawal of the member from the pouch,and the resulting strong odor might be displeasing to him.

It will be understood that various changes in the details, materials andarrangements of parts which have been herein described and illustratedin order to explain the nature of the invention may be made by thoseskilled in the art within the principle and scope of the invention asexpressed in the appended claim.

I claim:

A vapor dispensing package for releasing an incremental amount of avolatile substance to the atmosphere, comprising: a flat closed envelopeof thin impervious material with a sealed top end adapted to permitprogressive opening thereof; a at absorbent body impregnated with thevolatile substance and disposed Within Asaid envelope; the envelopehaving an opaque front face with a clear longitudinally extending windowthrough which the absorbent body may be seen; a marking on said bodyaligned with the window so that it appears in the window and travelsalong the length thereof toward the top end of the envelope as the bodyis progressively moved out of the top of the envelope; indicia on saidfront face and longitudinally spaced along the length of said window,said indicia permitting incremental adjustment of the area of theabsorbent body moved out of the envelope through its top end and exposedto the atmosphere; said absorbent body having a point at the top and anoutline which tiares outward toward the bottom, the outline and theindicia being correlated so that the desired area of the body isexposed; said body outline being suiciently rigid to pierce the seal ofthe top end of the envelope and progressively widen the opening as thebody is moved therethrough; the unbroken sealed portion of the envelopeand the outline of the absorbent body cooperating to hold the body andthe envelope in adjusted relation.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,857,367 Ellison May l0, 1932 1,895,236 Smith et al. Jan. 24, 19332,069,179 Dunaway Jan. 26, 1937 2,155,057 Moore Apr. 18, 1939 2,593,060Schrader Apr. 15, 1952 2,757,957 Samann Aug. 7, 1956 2,763,395 MeekSept. 18, 1956 2,766,067 Shinberg Oct. 9, 1956 2,797,844 Meek July 2,1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 281,201 Italy Jan. 5, 1931 545,113 Great BritainMay 11, 1942

